It was summer 🙂 Last time I went the red section of that trail that leads into bonnyville was shut so I didn’t ride it (instead having a whale of a time seeing how fast I dared ride the open section on blue belle) but the time before I did. I don’t remember it being that washed out as it was absolutely chucking it down and freezing cold.

I always just head for the middle of it as I far too much of a idiot to be able to adjust my line in time for that corner…

For anyone who’s been to see Jedi, how do those drops compare to the gradually increasing sized drops that Tony has?

Going on my limited experience looking at the photos above, that first drop off into VV has def been built up now. Would say its probably easily rollable now. The start of BV def isn’t rollable and as said above in wet weather the slight gully on landing to the left freaked me out a bit to start with, despite easily doing bigger drops on local trails.

blitz – Member
For anyone who’s been to see Jedi, how do those drops compare to the gradually increasing sized drops that Tony has?

Assuming we are talking about the ones on the exposed part of the field, there is no prep time like there is at Tony’s.

In terms of height most stuff at BPW is the same height.

The bigger drops are on the blacks

I far too much of a idiot to be able to adjust my line in time for that corner…

I may have “off pisted” a little bit on that corner occasionally 😳

VV > BV > IF is still my favourite run down though.

This is the drop going in to Bonneville, i’m the slow one at the back that managed to roll it.

[video]https://youtu.be/A569Pr5_Be8[/video]

That Dai Hard qualifier annoys the hell out of me – I’ll be the first to admit that gap jumps are my weakest skill but that trail has no other non-rollable gaps and it’s probably my favourite trail at BPW. I end up skipping around the qualifier and then ride the trail fast enough to frequently catch other riders.

All the other qualifiers make sense, if I can ride them fine I can ride the trail fine – just need to not stop when I reach Pork Belly or Coal Not Dole because if I’m mid-flow I’m fine with those drops but from a standing start my brain tends to interfere.

Am looking forwards to Poppety Ping – have never been comfy with the angles of the tables on A470, it’s a bit too dirt jumper for my meagre skills.

I suspect the most dangerous trails are the swoopy fast blues, especially late in the day when you’re getting tired. Speeds get very high and crashes could be nasty. I’m much happier wearing a full-face when I’m doing that much fast descending in one day.

This is the drop going in to Bonneville, i’m the slow one at the back that managed to roll it.

Not been since last Oct, have they built up the landing now? No way I would’ve tried to roll it last time I was there. Looks a lot easier from that vid but could just be the angle?

I suspect the most dangerous trails are the swoopy fast blues, especially late in the day when you’re getting tired.

exactly this

Not been since last Oct, have they built up the landing now? No way I would’ve tried to roll it last time I was there. Looks a lot easier from that vid but could just be the angle?

I don’t know, that was last October when I was there, I think one side of the drop was lower than the other side, but I wouldn’t recommend rolling it I think I probably got lucky!

I suspect the most dangerous trails are the swoopy fast blues, especially late in the day when you’re getting tired.

+1
[video]http://vimeo.com/208244344[/video]
[video]http://vimeo.com/209887491[/video]
Nothing hard about these two, first was just misjudging and the second was bad decision making when knackered at the end of the day.

I suspect the most dangerous trails are the swoopy fast blues, especially late in the day when you’re getting tired.

I push myself harder on the techy reds than I do on the blues, as the speed increases my self preservation instincts kick in and I hold back a little. My gung ho riding buddy is quicker than me down WW (his all out speed, and my cornering flow needs work), but he can’t hold my wheel on VV.

Tony’s practice drops are well made (as you would expect) because the actual vertical face bit is not really that deep. This means that even on the ‘big’ one, if you panic, grab a load of brake and roll over it, your chain ring clears and you tend not to go OTB. This is what you want when practicing drops with beginners! They get big when you hit them faster, because they are on a gradual down slope, so more speed equals more drop to the landing point.

The drops on the reds at BPW are all fairly small, but add in an often less than straight or short run-in and run out, and a changeable surface, and they are more difficult for beginners, who tend to focus on the drop, and then pick a bad line.

The drops on the blacks at BPW are bigger, and are definitely not rollable, unless you are DannyMac and are going nose wheely out of them…. 😉

(there are a 3 nice progressive drops at Chicksands these days, that go up to a vertical face of maybe 4 foot (not massive, but big enough you wouldn’t want to face plant OTB off it….) and these help to gain mental confidence because they probably look bigger than they are (the opposite of Tony’s “safe” drops, which probably look smaller than they are) I should not though, the smallest drop at Chicky is actually the most dangerous, as the run out includes the potential interface to a large tree if you run in straight to it, rather than aim a bit left off the lip

Scamper – Member

The start of BV def isn’t rollable

It 100% is. Or was when it first opened and was in the middle of last year, you never know, it might have changed.

Well, yes, someone posted a vid a while back of them rolling it, so obviously it is possible! I’d not recommend anyone doing it though and IMO it’d take more skill to roll it without crashing than just doing the drop properly!

Just seen this come up. VV quali rolled at 0:55

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Going on my limited experience looking at the photos above, that first drop off into VV has def been built up now.

Definitely has, watched them doing it when I was resting at the top on a pedal-up day visit. The lads said the problem was people going off it slowly and the front wheel being rotated round under the boardwalk, cue a broken collarbone or two. The actual drop is the same if you hit it at reasonable speed as you land further down the landing but it is now just rollable. I had a real mental block about it before they modified it, 50/50 whether I chickened out or not, now I fly off it and land well past the rebuilt bit so it doesn’t matter 😀

Just got to work on the qualifiers for Bonneyville, Coal Not Dole and Pork Belly as I can ride those trails past them but not the start! Was fine before they beefed them up. Same on Insufficient Funds, loved it before but it scares the poo out of me now. A return trip to Jedi may be required…

Oh yeah, F/F for uplift days, normal helmet if pedalling up. Tend to stick to the blues and the odd red if pedalling though, purely due to tirednes not helmet type!

mark90 – Member 
Not looked closely at VV, but pretty sure it’s smaller than that now. Going off it looks like it should be rollable, though I haven’t tried.

Watched a few people roll it and go OTB 😀 . Though that was a while back.

Daft thing is if it’s now rollable and built up, I’d probably drop it properly at speed, clearing any ramp off it.

Same with gaps. Make it a table and I’ll attempt to clear it. Exact same with a gap, no (unless it’s really tiny). The actual skills, trajectory and angle of the bike and landing is the same gap or not. That’s one thing I argue with some who insist everything has to be a gap otherwise it’s not technical enough and doesn’t encourage you to learn, but it’s the same technical skills and you can’t learn gaps without trying something that isn’t a gap first. IMHO (from the point of view of someone who isn’t a fearless kid).

Just because some people go OTB doesn’t mean it isn’t rollable. I’ve been OTB rolling something everyone else rolled ok 😳

With regards to the bonneville drop, it never bothered me until I saw a large group hanging around it, with a rider refusing like a horse at a fence. It then worried me. When in fact the rocky bit after the drop is the awkward bit.

It was the same at the boardwalk on the mega, people making a thing of it and hanging about when actually it’s easy. Just ride off it and try not to overthink.

milky1980 – Member
Just got to work on the qualifiers for Bonneyville, Coal Not Dole and Pork Belly as I can ride those trails past them but not the start! Was fine before they beefed them up. Same on Insufficient Funds, loved it before but it scares the poo out of me now. A return trip to Jedi may be required…

Not ridden Bonneville and have a mental block on the drop at the start of Pork Belly, but no issues with the start of Coal Not Dole (although I do roll the first drop then drop the second properly). Insufficent Funds though is interesting – I hadn’t ridden it until my last visit and rode it blind so had no choice but to ride all the drops and was absolutely fine even though I think the drops are bigger (and certainly faster) than those qualifiers.

I tend to be fine with drops if they’re ‘in the trail’ but often struggle with standalone features or stuff with a standing start (the mentioned drops at Chicksands do my head in – I can get off the second easy enough but no further even though I know I can physically ride that stuff).

Funny old game ain’t it?

No offence intended Alex, but getting that far back on drops (at least in the first pic) makes me wince a little, you’re going to let the front drop away one day on something big.

I tend to be fine with drops if they’re ‘in the trail’ but often struggle with standalone features or stuff with a standing start.

Same here. I hit stuff on natural trails and trail centres that is much more complicated than a lot of ‘features’. It must be that I’m in my flow and I don’t have time to think about it. I was at Rogate with a few mates last month and had a mental block over one of the feature drops there, about 18″ so not exactly big but with a fast landing. I do bigger drops most rides by taking a cheeky line somewhere but this one took me most of the afternoon to conquer 😳 Probably didn’t help that Ben Deakin turned up to give someone a coaching session while I was giving myself a quiet talking to…

@Tom – you know the bit

(mate riding, me taking pics)

I wrote above the pics. Should be a clue 😉 That’s my mate Martin, I’ll let him know. He’s quicker than me tho so he might not take much notice. That first drop tho it’s hard to get the speed up – pretty short run up.

I didn’t ride insufficient funds last time but watched a few vids since. A couple of those drops look a lot bigger than I remember. Definitely want to be following someone first time down there as I’m rubbish at that speed is your friend thing on new stuff. The jump on the right on Hotstepper after the biggest drop being a prime example.